Tabula Rasa
by night.nerd
Summary: There is a fleeting moment in time when two people meet for the very first time, and it provides a foundation upon how we look upon them for the rest of our lives. Jemma Simmons took Leo Fitz by surprise, and he continues to be utterly intrigued to this day. [Day 4 of 23 for my Fitzsimmons Six-Word Story Countdown]


**Author's Note: **Once again, for formality's sake, I am going to blaze through the introductory information. This is day four of my Fitzsimmons Six-Word Story Countdown until the premier of season two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC and Marvel own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., along with the wonderful characters and the lovely plot, and any mistakes in this are my own due to the fact that I currently do not have a Beta.

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><p><em>Meeting you changed me the most.<em>

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><p>I had just arrived at the Academy a few days ago, and already rumors of another young scientist reached my ears. It seemed as though this other scientist was focusing more towards biochemistry than any engineering-related science, but that did not ease the jealousy bubbling in my stomach. Nobody talked about me with that much praise or amazement, or so I assumed due to the shock most people expressed at my age.<p>

A few days after the first class began, my roommate was chattering about some of his classes and briefly mentioned that this other scientist would be in my kinetics course. "Well, maybe I don't want to know anything else about this other scientist!" I said, snapping back and acting upon impulsive anger. "I get that he's a genius and that I might not be the only one around, but maybe I don't want to hear about it all the time, yeah?" My roommate stifled a laugh for some infuriatingly unknown reason, and I promptly walked out of the room, shaking hands by my side.

My roommate was asleep by the time I returned to our shared dorm, and I sat down to complete the homework I had abandoned before. After that, I headed to sleep, trying not to worry about how this other scientist might surpass me as the prodigy.

I dressed in my best jumper the next morning, hoping I would make a decent impression on the professor, and arrived to class fifteen minutes early. I actively skimmed the crowd for someone who was not at least five years older than I, but there was no success. Eventually the professor rose from behind his desk and began giving his introductory lecture. The other scientist about my age still had not arrived, and though I would never confess to it, his absence caused some of the tension to ease from my shoulders.

About five minutes into the lecture, a breathless girl whirled through the door, a worried frown pulling at her lips. "Sorry I am late," she apologized, flushing a brilliant shade of red before the entire class, "One of the upperclassmen told me it was in the other building, and I…" Though she continued elaborating on why she was late, the words seemed to fade after that.

This must have been the other genius that my roommate had told me about, the prodigy who turned heads and was so intelligent that the room seemed to be brightened. Jemma Simmons was all that indeed. She was utterly radiant with a passion towards science and illuminated by her cleverness. Sometime during her explanation, her brown-eyed gaze caught mine for a few fleeting seconds before almost instantly being diverted. I was not quite sure what it meant, but I instantly knew I wanted to know her; I longed to know her secrets and yearned to hear insight into whatever she was thinking or what research she was pursuing. I could tell from a few short seconds that she was unlike anybody else I had ever encountered before.

It was the beginning of a very long struggle to try and find words clever enough to say to her, pressure that was luckily relieved from my shoulders after we were assigned to be partners in chemical kinetics.

Now, don't mistake me for a romantic or a poet, for I am neither of them. I am simply a man drawn to the gravitation field that is Jemma Simmons.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I wrote this soon after I learned about the deleted scenes from _Seeds_, and it is probably one of my favorite one-shots that I have written now that I am technically on day thirteen and am looking back at these as I continue to post them.

Anyways, please leave a review! What takes me a decent amount of time only takes you a few moments to review, and anything from one particular line you liked to constructive criticism helps me improve as a writer! Thank you!

~NN


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